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Websyte Corporation Pty Ltd v Alexander [2012] FCA 69 (13 February 2012)
Last Updated: 13 February 2012
FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
Websyte Corporation Pty Ltd v Alexander
[2012] FCA 69
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Citation:
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Websyte Corporation Pty Ltd v Alexander [2012] FCA 69
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Parties:
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WEBSYTE CORPORATION PTY LTD (ACN 097 870 936) v
LACHLAN ALEXANDER and SHANE MCGRATH
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File number:
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VID 207 of 2011
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Judge:
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JESSUP J
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Date of judgment:
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Catchwords:
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PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Search order
– Undertakings not to use recovered items for other purpose –
Whether applicant to be released from
undertakings – Whether documents
might be provided to police in connection with corresponding criminal
investigation.
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Legislation:
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Cases cited:
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Place:
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Melbourne
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Division:
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GENERAL DIVISION
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Category:
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Catchwords
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Number of paragraphs:
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Counsel for the Applicant:
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Solicitor for the Applicant:
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Holding Redlich
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Counsel for the First Respondent:
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The first respondent did not appear
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Counsel for the Second Respondent:
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Mr J Wheelahan
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Solicitor for the Second Respondent:
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Bullards Lawyers
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IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
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VICTORIA DISTRICT REGISTRY
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WEBSYTE CORPORATION PTY LTD (ACN 097 870
936)Applicant
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AND:
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LACHLAN ALEXANDERFirst
Respondent
SHANE MCGRATH Second Respondent
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DATE OF ORDER:
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WHERE MADE:
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THE COURT ORDERS THAT:
- The
applicant’s interlocutory application filed on 12 January 2012 be
dismissed.
- With
respect to the second respondent’s interlocutory application filed on 17
January 2012:
(a) that application be stood over to a time and date
fixed by the docket Judge;
(b) the parties have liberty to apply;
(c) the parties’ costs to date be reserved.
- The
date by which the second respondent make discovery pursuant to Order 3 made on
2 November 2011 be extended to 28 February 2012.
- Orders
4-14 and 17-20 made on 2 November 2011 be vacated.
- The
proceeding be listed for directions at 11:00 am on 5 March 2012.
Note: Entry of orders is dealt with in Rule 39.32 of the Federal
Court Rules 2011.
IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA
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VICTORIA DISTRICT REGISTRY
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GENERAL DIVISION
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VID 207 of 2011
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BETWEEN:
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WEBSYTE CORPORATION PTY LTD (ACN 097 870
936) Applicant
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AND:
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LACHLAN ALEXANDER First Respondent
SHANE MCGRATH Second Respondent
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JUDGE:
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JESSUP J
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DATE:
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13 FEBRUARY 2012
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PLACE:
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MELBOURNE
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REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
- These
reasons relate to two interlocutory applications made in January 2012, which
came before me as duty Judge on 1 February 2012.
Only the applicant and the
second respondent appeared on the hearing of these applications. The proceeding
itself is in the docket
of Dodds-Streeton J.
- The
applicant, Websyte Corporation Pty Ltd, is in the business of developing
internet websites, e-commerce websites and advertising.
It alleges that the
respondents, while in its employ, took steps to establish a business for the
marketing and sale of printer cartridges
over the internet. It alleges that
they reproduced its software for use in their business, so modifying it as to
cause the business
to be promoted in an electronic business directory hosted by
the applicant. These and related allegations made by the applicant
are said to
give rise to infringements of copyright under the Copyright Act 1968
(Cth), and to breaches of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), of the
respondents’ contracts with the applicant and of the respondents’
duty of confidence as employees and former
employees of the applicant; and, to
the extent that allegations are made of unauthorised access to, and modification
of, the applicant’s
own software, of trespass.
- Immediately
upon the institution of this proceeding on 16 March 2011, the applicant applied
for, and secured, the making of a search
order, directed to the respondents, in
relation to a wide range of documents, computer files, computer software,
passwords, usernames
and other artefacts, the location and preservation of which
was said to be necessary to protect the evidence that might be relevant
in the
proceeding. That order was made upon the applicant giving certain undertakings,
including the following:
The applicant will not, without leave of the Court, use any information,
document or thing obtained as a result of the execution
of this order for the
purpose of any civil or criminal proceeding, either within or outside Australia,
other than this proceeding.
The search order was duly executed with respect to the first respondent, but,
I was told, not with respect to the second respondent.
- On
1 April 2011, the court gave the director of the applicant, Paul Meyers, leave
–
... to inspect copies of any of the Relevant Data in the possession of the
Applicant’s solicitor (pursuant to the Order in
paragraph 2 above)
strictly on an undertaking by him:
(a) to inspect the information and data the subject of this order, being the
Relevant Data, strictly in accordance with this order;
(b) to keep all of the information received, searched and/or inspected by him
confidential and not disclose the information received,
searched and/or
inspected by him to any other persons (except lawyers for the parties or any
independent computer expert engaged
by the Applicant); and
(c) to use the information derived as a result of the searches and inspections
referred to above solely for the purpose of these
proceedings.
The “relevant data” referred to in this order were seized from
the first respondent’s premises pursuant to the search
order made on 16
March 2011.
- On
2 June 2011, the applicant informed Victoria Police that it wished to press
charges against the respondents in relation to alleged
contraventions of
s 247G of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). That section provides as
follows:
(1) A person who—
(a) causes any unauthorised access to or modification of restricted data held in
a computer; and
(b) knows that the access or modification is unauthorised; and
(c) intends to cause the access or modification—
is guilty of an offence and liable to level 7 imprisonment (2 years
maximum).
(2) An offence against this section is a summary offence.
(3) In this section restricted data means data held in a computer to which
access is restricted by an access control system associated
with a function of
the computer.
In a statement by which that reference to the police was effected, Mr Meyers
said:
On 17 March 2011, pursuant to the orders of Justice Jessup made on 16 March
2011, the solicitors for Websyte attended the premises
of Mr Alexander and
obtained copies of all of the computers and digital storage devices in his
possession. The purpose of this search
was the preservation of evidence. These
computer images are in the possession of and have been reviewed by the
solicitors for Websyte.
Websyte can make an application the Federal Court of Australia for leave to
provide this information, or part of this information,
to the police. Until the
Court grants such an order, however, the information obtained from
Mr Alexander’s computers must
remain confidential. If it would
assist the Police, Websyte would be willing to make such an application at its
own expense.
It does not appear that, at this stage, the applicant was seeking to press
charges against the respondents in respect of alleged contraventions
of any
provision of the Copyright Act.
- On
4 August 2011, the applicant filed its Statement of Claim in this proceeding.
It alleged that, in about August 2010, the first
respondent had reproduced the
applicant’s software by making copies thereof, and commenced to adapt the
variables within that
software to operate multiple websites by reference to the
respondents’ printer cartridge domain names. It alleged that the
software
was uploaded on to the respondents’ server, and was thereafter accessed by
uploading information relating to the respondents’
printer cartridge
business. It alleged that modifications were made to the software, including
such as would expressly delete references
to the name of the applicant, and to
remove obvious visual clues that the respondents’ websites were being run
on the applicant’s
software, with the intention of concealing their
activities from the applicant.
- The
applicant alleged that these modifications were done pursuant to communications
between the respondents which, as particularised,
included the
following:
(a) email dated 7 November 2010 8:26 from McGrath to Alexander: “hey
mate... I reckon when you can ... change the interface
to no say websyte
ecommerce login ... cause that can be one of the only things out there that
could get us ... is it overly hard
to change?”
(b) email dated 7 November 2010 10:26PM from McGrath to Alexander: “great
work my friend! That looks pretty groovy.... Just
gotta get rid of that badge in
the site caus im over seeing the word websyte ... your [sic] a good
man.”
(c) email 25 December 2010 11:23PM from McGrath to Alexander: “cms websyte
crap from the back end of both systems ... I hate
seeing the word
websyte”;
(d) email 26 December 2010 12:30PM from McGrath to Alexander: “mate looks
FANTASTIC however it still says websyte admin home
up the top (like in the
explorer toolbar) and the other one says CW admin home – did you mean that
to be CN admin home? Looks
really good”;
(e) email 28 December 2010 11:32PM (subject: traces of websyte everywhere) from
McGrath to Alexander and includes the sentence “is
our shopping cart
section much different to websyte yet?”
It is common ground that the emails referred to in these particulars were
available to the applicant only as a result of the execution
of the search order
made on 16 March 2011. The applicant’s Statement of Claim contains other
examples of communications between
the respondents which were obtained in the
same way, but what I have set out above will stand as a sufficient indication of
the nature
of the material sought to be relied on by the applicant, as referred
to in its Statement of Claim.
- At
a meeting on 2 November 2011 between Mr Meyers and the detective handling the
relevant investigation on behalf of Victoria Police,
Det Snr Con Price, the
Statement of Claim was provided to the latter. Why Mr Meyers did this was not
explained in his affidavit,
but he gave oral evidence as
follows:
My understanding, first of all, is that the statement of claim is a public
document and that ... was already available to the police.
When we provided it
to the police my understanding was that they could have obtained that themselves
had they needed to or wanted
to. The second area was provided during a meeting
on or around I think – was it 2 November – as referred to earlier.
... During my discussions with the police I had mentioned to them that an Anton
Piller search had been conducted, which was under
confidence, and that I was
unable to speak to them at any detail about what was obtained during that
search, either verbally or to
provide any of that documentation. We had some
discussions about whether the court – or whether we could apply to the
court
to obtain some of that relevant material, and on that particular day the
discussion was around the process of what we required –
supporting
documentation from the police to enable us to make that application to the
court.
Mr Meyers also said that he told Det Price “that the information
obtained at the Anton Piller search may be useful for them,
for their
investigation”.
- Also
on 2 November 2011, the court made procedural orders by consent. One of those
orders was that the parties give standard discovery
by 4:00 pm on 15 December
2011. Only the first respondent complied with that order. In his verified list
of documents filed on
15 December 2011, the first respondent swore, in effect,
that all documets other than court documents and correspondence between
the
parties and documents in respect of which privilege was claimed had been lost as
the result of a “hardware malfunction”
in September 2011. The
applicant gave discovery on 31 January 2012. The second respondent has not yet
complied with his discovery
obligation.
- By
interlocutory application filed on 12 January 2012, the applicant and Mr Meyers
seek to be released from their undertakings referred
to above, and from the
implied undertakings by which they would be bound by reason of having secured
access to the respondents’
documents pursuant to a coercive court process,
to the extent necessary to permit certain emails, and the electronic contents of
the server of the respondents’ “cartridgenet” computer, to be
provided to the Victoria Police, in circumstances
which I shall presently
relate. Those emails, and that server, were amongst the documents seized from
the premises of the first
respondent pursuant to the search order made on
16 March 2011.
- The
applicant relies upon an affidavit sworn on 12 December 2011 by Det Price,
in which it is stated that the police are investigating
the respondents for
possible offences under s 247G of the Crimes Act, and also under
s 132AJ of the Copyright Act, subss (1) and (2) of which provide as
follows:
(1) A person commits an offence if:
(a) the person possesses an article, with the intention of doing any of the
following with the article:
(i) selling it;
(ii) letting it for hire;
(iii) by way of trade offering or exposing it for sale or hire;
(iv) offering or exposing it for sale or hire to obtain a commercial advantage
or profit;
(v) distributing it for trade;
(vi) distributing it to obtain a commercial advantage or profit;
(vii) distributing it to an extent that will affect prejudicially the owner of
the copyright in the work or other subject-matter
of which the article is an
infringing copy;
(viii) by way of trade exhibiting it in public;
(ix) exhibiting it in public to obtain a commercial advantage or profit; and
(b) the article is an infringing copy of a work or other subject-matter; and
(c) copyright subsists in the work or other subject-matter at the time of the
possession.
(2) An offence against subsection (1) is punishable on conviction by a fine of
not more than 550 penalty units or imprisonment for
not more than 5 years, or
both.
Det Price said that he was aware of “additional material” that
had been obtained pursuant to the search order, and added
that the police were
seeking access to that material.
- As
to the matter arising under s 247G of the Crimes Act, Det Price
said:
In relation to the allegations under section 247G of the Crimes Act 1958
(Vic), I have reviewed the allegations in the Statement of Claim and the
documents referred to in the particulars. These documents,
in particular the
communications between Alexander and McGrath, will be relevant to any
investigation and provide contemporaneous
documentary evidence in relation to
those offences. The quotes extracted from those emails indicate to me that
Victoria Police is
likely to use those emails as part of any criminal
investigation and use them as evidence if charges are pressed.
As to the matter arising under the Copyright Act, Det Price said:
The evidence required to prove an offence under section 132AJ of the
Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) is different to that of section 247 of the
Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). The Copyright Act offence require an
analysis of the software being used by McGrath and Alexander in the furtherance
of their business “cartridgenet.com.au”
(Cartridgenet). To properly
consider whether charges should be laid, the Victoria Police would therefore
require access to the contents
of the server that was running the Cartridgenet
website during the time the alleged offences may have been committed, being
between
January and March 2011. This will enable us to consider whether the
contents of the server contained material that breached any
copyright owned by
Websyte.
The offences under section 132AJ of the Copyright Act also requires proof
that McGrath and Alexander possessed an infringing copy with the intention of
exhibiting it in public or distributing
it for trade. Again, the quotes from
the emails referred to in the particulars to the Statement of Claim indicate to
me that those
emails are likely to provide contemporaneous documentary evidence
of any offences that may have occurred.
The Crimes Act prosecution would relate to a summary offence, and would need
to be commenced before 6 March 2012. Therein lies the urgency of the
applicant’s interlocutory application. The Copyright Act prosecution
would relate to an indictable offence, and would be subject to no such
limitation period.
- In
Liberty Funding Pty Ltd v Phoenix Capital Ltd [2005] FCAFC 3; (2005) 218 ALR 283, the
Full Court considered an application for a party to be released from the implied
undertaking which arose upon the filing, at
the behest of that party, of an
affidavit by the other party which the court held was “intended to fulfil
the role (albeit
somewhat extended) of an affidavit of discovery” (218 ALR
at 288, [20]). The Full Court said (218 ALR at 289-90,
[31]):
In order to be released from the implied undertaking it has been said that a
party in the position of the appellants must show “special
circumstances”: see, for example, Springfield Nominees Pty Ltd v
Bridgelands Securities Ltd (1992) 38 FCR 217 ; 110 ALR 685. It is
unnecessary to examine the authorities in this area in any detail. The parties
were not in disagreement as to the legal principles.
The notion of
“special circumstances” does not require that some extraordinary
factors must bear on the question before
the discretion will be exercised. It is
sufficient to say that, in all the circumstances, good reason must be shown why,
contrary
to the usual position, documents produced or information obtained in
one piece of litigation should be used for the advantage of
a party in another
piece of litigation or for other non-litigious purposes. The discretion is a
broad one and all the circumstances
of the case must be examined. In
Springfield Nominees, Wilcox J identified a number of considerations
which may, depending upon the circumstances, be relevant to the exercise of the
discretion.
These were:
- the nature of
the document;
- the
circumstances under which the document came into existence; [2005] FCAFC 3; 218 ALR 283 at
290
- the attitude of
the author of the document and any prejudice the author may sustain;
- whether the
document pre-existed litigation or was created for that purpose and therefore
expected to enter the public domain;
- the nature of
the information in the document (in particular whether it contains personal data
or commercially sensitive information);
- the
circumstances in which the document came in to the hands of the applicant;
and
- most importantly
of all, the likely contribution of the document to achieving justice in the
other proceeding.
- Liberty
Funding did not involve a request for leave to use a document in a criminal
investigation or proceeding, as does the present case. Bailey v Australian
Broadcasting Corporation [1995] 1 Qd R 476 was, however, such a case.
There, Lee J undertook a careful examination of the English and Australian
authorities, and reached the
conclusion that such a request for leave was to be
approached by weighing two competing public interests: that involved in the due
administration of the civil law insofar as it depended upon the protection of a
party’s right to privacy and confidence with
respect to his or her own
documents, save to the extent necessary for the conduct of the proceeding at
hand, and that involved in
the location and prosecution of criminal offenders.
As to the latter, his Honour said ([1995] Qd R at
488):
In my opinion, in determining the weight to be given to a public interest of
that kind, some of the factors on which the Court will
focus include: the nature
of the offence alleged; the cogency of the evidence sought to be adduced in
support of it; the authority
to which the documents are sought to be disclosed;
the manner of the authority’s intended user; the possibility of misuse by
that authority and any prejudice, actual or potential, which may be occasioned
to the respondents by the disclosure:....
- Lee
J then gave some attention to the “nature of the offence” aspect.
His Honour said ([1995] Qd R at 489):
There is a clear distinction to be made between offences which essentially
involve the infringement of private or individual rights
and offences which it
may be in the public interest to uncover. That is not to say that the public
has no interest in protecting
an individual from injury to his reputation,
person or property but it is to recognise the reality that in many cases where
private
or individual rights are infringed adequate civil remedies will be
available to the wronged party. In those types of cases the public
interest
will be suitably served by permitting the individual to continue with or
initiate any action which he may have for a civil
remedy. Conversely, if a
party does not feel sufficiently aggrieved to protect his rights by means of
civil action open to him,
it is difficult to see why the public conscience
should feel any greater insult or burden. Much, of course, will depend on the
circumstances
of each case, including the nature of the individual’s right
and the extent to which it has been infringed.
With respect, I would associate myself with these observations.
- I
was referred to a number of other authorities in which courts had exercised
their discretion one way or the other in situations
said to be analogous to the
present one. There is, however, no controversy as to the nature of the broad
discretion given to the
court, nor as to the purpose for its exercise. The
applicant has pressed upon me the need for expedition in the preparation of
these
reasons, given the imminent expiry of the statutory limitation period for
the institution of a prosecution under s 247G of the Crimes Act. In the
circumstances, this is not the occasion for any more detailed examination of the
authorities.
- The
offences which Victoria Police are investigating correspond with civil wrongs in
relation to which the applicant sues in this
proceeding. Broadly, what is under
consideration is the addition of a criminal sanction to the civil remedies which
are available
here. The offences being investigated fall into the category of
those described by Lee J, in Bailey, as involving the infringement
of private or individual rights rather than, by contrast, involving conduct
which injures or damages
the community or a section of it, or alleged criminal
conduct which “it may be in the greater public interest to uncover”.
This is not for a moment to diminish the importance, in the public interest, of
offences such as those now being investigated by
Victoria Police being uncovered
and, where appropriate, prosecuted, but it is a valid distinction nonetheless
and one which, like
Lee J, I consider relevant to the discretionary
exercise upon which I am engaged.
- A
related consideration is that the initiative to set in train the criminal
process with respect to the conduct of the respondents
was taken by the
applicant itself. Again, I recognise that there is a public interest in persons
who claim to have been injured
by criminal conduct reporting that conduct to the
police. But this consideration is of some present relevance in that it reflects
the reality that it is the applicant itself, rather than any other company or
person or the broader community, which is said to have
suffered as a result of
the respondents’ conduct which is alleged to be unlawful.
- There
is another circumstance which I was urged by the respondents to take into
account. It is that the provision by the applicant
of its Statement of Claim to
Det Price in November 2011 was contrary to the undertaking given to the court on
1 April 2011. It seems
clear that, insofar as the Statement of Claim included
extracts from documents obtained upon execution of the search order, the
provision
of the Statement of Claim to the police constituted the use by the
applicant of information derived as a result of the searches,
within the meaning
of that order. It was submitted on behalf of the applicant that the Statement
of Claim was provided to Det Price
for the purpose of this proceeding, in the
sense of providing for the detective a basis upon which he would then be able to
express
a view whether the police would be assisted in their investigation by
being given access to the documents obtained under the search
order, thereby
providing the applicant with grounds for the very application for release which
is now being made.
- The
point of controversy here relates to the purpose for which the Statement of
Claim was provided to Det Price in November 2011.
That is a question of fact.
When he was called to give oral evidence with respect to that subject, and when
asked an open question
in chief as to his purpose in providing the Statement of
Claim to Det Price, Mr Meyers’ response was, I would have to say,
less than convincing. Before he gave that evidence, he had sat in court while
the subject was dealt with in the submissions of counsel
for the applicant. He
was, therefore, acutely alive to the distinction which lies at the core of the
present question. In his evidence,
Mr Meyers also made it clear that, in
November 2011, he took the view that the Statement of Claim was a public
document and that,
had they wished it, the police could have obtained it for
themselves. In his evidence, Mr Meyers gave me the indication that he
thought there was nothing wrong with providing the Statement of Claim to the
police, although he was astute to make it clear to them
that he was bound by the
undertaking not to go further. In the circumstances, I am not prepared to
accept his evidence – to
the extent that the applicant would wish me to
understand that he did give evidence – that he provided the Statement of
Claim
to Det Price solely for the purpose of making the application which is now
before the court. I think it more likely, and I would
find, that Mr Meyers
also had the purpose of disclosing to the detective the nature of the
allegations made against the respondents
in the proceeding, with a view to him
coming to a better understanding of the material that might sustain the laying
of criminal
charges. That he should reach that understanding was not, of
course, unrelated to the decision to make the present application,
in the sense
that it enabled Det Price to advise the applicant as to whether there would be
any utility in doing so. But such a
utility could, I consider, arise only
because of an assessment by the detective about the value of the material
already disclosed
in the Statement of Claim to his investigation.
- I
would find that the Statement of Claim was provided to Det Price in November
2011 not solely for the purpose of this proceeding
and was, therefore, provided
contrary to the undertaking which Mr Meyers had given to the court on 1
April 2011. This conclusion
bears upon the exercise of my discretion in two
ways. First, it requires me to view the evidence of Det Price, upon which the
applicant
relied in support of its application for leave, in a particular way.
The assessment of the viability of criminal charges which is
in part the subject
of that evidence must be seen as depending, to some extent at least, upon
information provided to the detective
in breach of an undertaking given to the
court. And secondly, the applicant’s own position, in seeking the
favourable exercise
of the court’s discretion, is necessarily compromised
by what must be viewed as an act of self-help on its part, to the extent
that it
made use of some emails in relation to which it now seeks leave to be released
from its undertaking.
- As
against the considerations to which I have referred above, there is the
undoubted one that s 247G of the Crimes Act and s 132AJ of the
Copyright Act are important provisions which should be enforced in the normal
way of the criminal law. On one view, there would be an irony if
it were a
court of justice which stood in the way of such enforcement by precluding the
injured party concerned from providing to
the police all the material upon which
it could legitimately lay its hands. It seems quite possible that, because of
the “hardware
malfunction” experienced by the respondents in
September 2011, the only versions of the documents and files that might be
useful
in an investigation under those provisions are those obtained under the
search order, and now held by the applicant. In relation
to the summary offence
under the Crimes Act, there is the additional consideration that, if all that
material cannot now be provided to the police, there is a prospect that
no
charge will be laid because of the expiry of the statutory limitations period to
which I have referred. The same consideration
does not apply with respect to
the indictable offence which arises under the Copyright Act, in which respect I
note that, if I were now to hold the applicant to its undertakings, that would
not necessarily forever protect
the relevant documents from use in a criminal
investigation. It would seem that much will depend on the use to which the
documents
are in fact put in this proceeding. This aspect is, however, a matter
upon which I did not receive detailed arguments, and I say
nothing further about
it.
- I
am influenced by the circumstance that, in March 2011 when the search order was
obtained, the applicant might instead have taken
the matter directly to the
police, who themselves might have used the conventional search procedures for
which the criminal law provides
to obtain the documents which are now in
contention. But such a procedure would have left the applicant without control
over the
proceeding, and would be unlikely to have produced such sweeping and
immediate access to the respondents’ documents as the
applicant obtained
under the search order issued by this court. By adopting the course which it
did, the applicant obtained a form
of direct and exceptional relief available
under the civil law. There was, however, a price to be paid for that expedient,
namely,
the categorical undertakings which the court required, and the strict
limitations upon use of the recovered material which necessarily
attended the
giving of those undertakings. The court should not, in my view, give any
currency to the notion that search orders
can be used as what might be, in
effect, the first of a two-step process in which, if the documents so recovered
appeared to be incriminating,
the second step might involve a criminal
prosecution for what is essentially the same delict.
- Weighing
up all considerations to which I have referred, I am not persuaded that it would
be in the interests of justice, or in the
public interest, for the applicant to
be released from the undertakings which it has given to the court in connection
with the material
recovered under the search order. Its interlocutory
application for that relief must be dismissed.
- The
other interlocutory application now before the court was filed by the second
respondent on 17 January 2012. He seeks a stay
of the proceeding as a whole,
the setting aside of the procedural orders made by Dodds-Streeton J on 2
November 2011 and the discharge
of the search order made on 16 March 2011. It
was, however, accepted by counsel for the second respondent that there was no
urgency
in these applications. The only further step that might be required of
the second respondent before the docket Judge is able to
give her attention to
the applications is the filing and service of a list of documents. If there is
any document which the second
respondent would be obliged to discover and which
might tend to incriminate him, or similar, he might take an objection to having
to disclose it in the conventional way. If it can be avoided, I would prefer
not, as duty Judge, to determine an application for
a permanent stay of a
proceeding in the docket of another Judge.
- The
applicant proposed a series of amendments to the interlocutory timetable ordered
by the docket Judge on 2 November 2011 with
which the second respondent
substantially concurred. I am in no position to second guess the parties on
these matters, but, particularly
given the absence of the first respondent, I am
disposed to ensure that the proceeding be mentioned again before the docket
Judge
as soon as may conveniently be arranged.
I certify that the preceding twenty-six (26)
numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Judgment herein of the
Honourable
Justice Jessup.
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Associate:
Dated: 13 February 2012
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2012/69.html